After being the youngest person to receive a double lung transplant at the age of five in 2007, doctors told nine-year-old Mariam last year that her body had begun to reject the organs. The hospital had attempted radiation therapy to delay the process but it was unsuccessful.

Mariam underwent the double lung transplant after being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at three-months-old; a genetic condition that affects the respiratory and digestive systems.

Before passing away, Mariam had been admitted to the children’s hospice Derian House in Chorley.

Her mother, Faaiza, said: “I was in shock when she died. She went so peacefully, she didn’t scream, she wasn’t in pain.”

Although Mariam’s family had been offered another transplant, they decided for her sake to not continue. Her mother explained: “After nine-and-a-half years of fighting there comes a point where the body and mind can’t take much more. She was my life, she suffered enough and there has to be a cut off point on what someone can take.”

As Mariam became more unwell, she confided in her mother, telling her that she didn’t want her to cry, saying: “I’m not scared of dying mummy, but I’m scared of leaving you.”

Mariam never complained to her parents, and even though she wished to be like her nieces, she often said she wouldn’t wish her condition on anybody else.

Ms Imran continued: “She was fearless and had a lot of fight in her. We nearly lost her twice in October when she was given 72 hours and she pulled through. Her mobility went down rapidly but it didn’t affect her personality at all. She was the same.”

Mariam’s parents do not regret putting their child through the double lung transplant since it enabled her to experience more of her childhood.

Grateful Ms Imran added: “I would like to thank the staff at Royal Blackburn Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital and Derian House for everything they have done for Mariam…There is nowhere else I would have wished her to be.”

By Davina Qureshi

[Image courtesy of Pulmonary Pathology]